Advocacy Successes
Physician Advocacy Successes
Good health policy is made with physicians in the discussion.
MSDC, working with its members, partners, and other organizations, has won major policy victories to help its members practice medicine. Below is a sampling of those victories. Do you want to be a vital part of the next policy victory helping improve the health of the District? Contact us today.
Opioid Policy
- MSDC was added to the opioid fund oversight panel by the Council in its legislation authorizing the oversight body
Scope of Practice
- MSDC supported legislation to ban the sale of flavored electronic smoking devices and restrict the sale of electronic smoking devices.
- Working with a coalition, MSDC added funding to the DC budget to support the hiring of more license specialists to help with the delay in processing medical licenses.
Women's Health
- B24-143, to regulate certified midwives, passed the Council with MSDC's support
Health Equity
- Mayor Muriel Bowser signs into law the Electronic Medical Order for Scope of Treatment Registry Amendment Act of 2019. The eMOST Registry Amendment Act permits the creation of an electronic database of advanced directive wishes for District residents that can be tied into the health information exchange.
- Mayor Bowser signs into law the School Sunscreen Safety Temporary Amendment Act of 2019. The bill permits students to bring and apply sunscreen during the 2019-2020 school year.
- MSDC comments on the importance of funding United Medical Center (UMC) and health facilities in Wards 7 and 8 in the mayor's budget. Those comments are used almost verbatim in CM Trayon White's comments advocating for funding of United Medical Center.
Scope of Practice
- DC Health publishes draft regulations removing the 3 mandatory CME hours for HIV/AIDS awareness and replaces them with a requirement to fulfill 10% of mandatory CME hours with a topic from a public health priority list. DC Health then waived the requirement for 2020.
- The Strengthening Reproductive Health Protections Act of 2020 is signed into law with MSDC support. The bill prohibits government interference in reproductive decisions between a patient and doctor, and prohibits employers from penalizing physicians for practicing reproductive medicine outside of their work hours.
- The Mayor's Commission on Healthcare Systems Transformation releases its final recommendations. One recommendation is for the District to explore options to make providing health care more affordable, including financial relief for higher malpractice insurance rates.
- The Council removes "telephone" from the list of prohibited types of telemedicine to allow physicians and other providers to be reimbursed for telephone telemedicine appointments after MSDC and health community advocacy.
- MSDC worked with the Council to modify onerous language in the Health Care Reporting Amendment Act that potentially would have penalized physicians from seeking help for substance abuse or addiction issues.
Opioid/Drug Policy
- The Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) waives prior authorization for key medication assisted treatments (MAT) treating substance use disorder patients in Medicaid.
- The Mayor signed into law The Access to Biosimilars Amendment Act of 2019, a top MSDC priority as it would help prescribers to prescribe more cost-effective drugs for patients.
Behavioral Health
- The Behavioral Health Parity Act of 2017, a major priority for MSDC and DCPA, officially becomes law. The legislation requires all health benefit plans offered by an insurance carrier to meet the federal requirements of the Wellstone/Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.
Health Equity
- The District Council passes B22-1001, The Health Insurance Marketplace Improvement Amendment Act of 2018. The bill prohibits the sale of Short Term, Limited Duration health plans and Association Health Plans (AHPs) in the DC Health Benefits Exchange.
Scope of Practice
- DC joins 28 other states in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact with B22-177 becoming law. The IMLC is designed to ease physician licensure in multiple states.
Women's Health
- The Maternal Mortality Review Committee is established by law. The Committee is responsible for finding solutions to maternal health crisis in the District. District physicians are an important part of this vital committee.
- B22-106, The Defending Access to Women's Health Care Services Amendment Act, becomes law. The act requires insurers to cover health care services like breast cancer screening and STI screenings without cost-sharing.
Opioid Policy
- Right before the Council adjourned for the session, it passed B21-32, the Specialty Drug Copayment Limitation Act. The bill limits cost shifting by payers for prescription drugs.
Behavioral Health
- B21-0007 passes the Council. The Behavioral Health Coordination of Care Amendment Act of 2016 permitted the disclosing of mental health information between a mental health facility and the health professional caring for the patient.
Women's Health
- MSDC was proud to have worked on B21-20. The law requires payers to cover up to 12 months of prescription contraception, advancing women's health and equality.
Board of Medicine Meeting Highlights March 1 Deadline for Updated COVID Vaccination Status
On Wednesday, the DC Board of Medicine held its monthly open meeting. The agenda included important updates for physicians including the rapidly approaching March 1 deadline for the COVID-19 booster mandate. The requirement is part of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s action plan to maintain a downward trend in COVID cases since the height of the Omicron wave.
The Board of Medicine emphasized the DC mandate that health professionals get “up-to-date” on vaccination and attest to their status. A February 8 Emergency Rulemaking updated the definition of full “up-to-date” vaccination to mean that “a person has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccine doses, including any booster dose(s) and annual vaccine doses, when eligible for such doses.” To fully comply with this requirement, providers must not only receive the booster but also provide attestation (or report exemption status). The requirement is summarized below with more comprehensive information at the end of this article.
Who does this impact?
The rulemaking applies to
- Health professionals who are licensed, registered, or certified by the Department of Health, and
- Unlicensed personnel in a healthcare setting.
What is required?
- Receive all recommended COVID-19 vaccine doses, i.e. (1) a primary series of: (a) two shots of Pfizer or Moderna or (b) one Jansen/Johnson shot, and (2) a booster shot by March 1, 2022
- Report vaccine status via https://doh.force.com/ver/s/vaccinereporting.
- Individuals who meet the requirements for an exemption to the vaccine mandate will be able to submit a request but must report the exemption status via the portal.
During the monthly meeting, the Executive Director also provided an update on DC licensees. Ms. Aisha Nixon reported that there are 11,948 licensed physicians (MD, DO) in the District, an increase of 104 over last month. The complete licensure census is:
MEDICINE AND SURGERY 11,401
OSTEOPATHY AND SURGERY 547
ACUPUNCTURIST 160
ANESTHESIOLOGIST ASSISTANT 106
MEDICAL TRAINING LICENSE I(A) 1,188
MEDICAL TRAINING LICENSE I(B) 327
MEDICAL TRAINING LICENSE I,I22
MEDICAL TRAINING REGISTRANT 997
NATUROPATH PHYSICIAN 63
PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT 1,043
POLYSOMNOGRAPHIC TECHNICIAN 2
POLYSOMNOGRAPHIC TECHNOLOGIST 63
POLYSOMNOGRAPHIC TRAINEE 2
SURGICAL ASSISTANT 112
CHINESE HERBOLOGY 4
The next Board of Medicine meeting will take place at 8:30 AM on March 30, 2022
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NOTICE FROM DC HEALTH
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
VACCINE BOOSTER REQUIRED BY MARCH 1, 2022
Vaccination and Booster Attestation
On August 27, 2021, regulations were issued requiring the following individuals receive the first dose of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine (i.e., Moderna or Pfizer) or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine no later than September 30, 2021:
• Health professionals who are licensed, registered, or certified by the Department of Health, and
• Unlicensed personnel in a Healthcare setting.
On February 8, 2022, an emergency rulemaking was adopted and effective immediately on that date. This rulemaking modifies sections 230 and 231 of Chapter 2 (Communicable and Reportable Diseases) of Subtitle B (Public Health and Medicine) of Title 22 (Health) of the DCMR to require health care workers to be up to date on their COVID-19 vaccine. This rulemaking, requires health professional and unlicensed personnel to be “up to date” on COVID-19 vaccines. At this time, this means:
(1) a primary series of:
(a) two shots of Pfizer or Moderna or (b) one Jansen/Johnson shot, and
(2) a booster shot by March 1, 2022.
The phrase “up to date” means a person has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccine doses, including any booster dose(s) and annual vaccine doses, when eligible for such doses, as set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A copy of the relevant regulations is attached.
To assist in this process, DC Health has created an online booster vaccine reporting portal which can be accessed by going to https://doh.force.com/ver/s/vaccinereporting. All licensed and unlicensed health care workers must report their vaccine status via this online tool. Individuals who meet the requirements for an exemption to the vaccine mandate will also be able to submit a request for an exemption via this portal. To obtain an exemption, individuals must meet one of the following requirements:
Failure to meet this requirement can result in disciplinary action including suspension and revocation of a health professional’s license.
For licensed and unlicensed personnel, no Healthcare facility, after, regardless of the date of hire, shall employ, contract, or grant privileges to a person who is not up to date.
Please follow the below instructions for requesting an exemption.
• For religious exemptions, individuals will need to upload a letter, stating that their vaccination against COVID-19 would violate a sincerely held religious belief and the vaccination would in fact violate a sincerely held religious belief of the person.
• For medical exemption requests, individuals will need to provide the name and license number of the healthcare provider who issued the medical exemption, and then upload a written letter from that licensed healthcare provider stating that being vaccinated against COVID-19 is medically inadvisable due to the person’s medical condition and it is in fact medically inadvisable for the person to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
• For the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) exemption, individuals will need to upload proof of vaccination of a W.H.O. approved vaccine and provide dates of vaccination.
All exemptions must be reviewed and approved by DC Health. Please allow time for the review and approval process.
If you want a copy of your submission for your records, please print or take a screen shot before you hit the Submit button. You will receive an email thank you message.
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